Homeless

There was no place to go
So I sat inside Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park
Listening to another one
One of us
Playing his heart out on the violin
Black case on ground
A few one dollars
A spattering of pocket change
For us it is lonely
Our mate is often unfair
Cheating us out of fame
Fortune is to be gotten by chance
But it is love
That propels and possess
One to stagger along the city streets seeking our stage for performance
I find the poster of a hungry mans face enchanting
Peeling from the subway tiles
I keep forgetting to photograph
His eyes longing
Asking the world to care
Do we?
Do I?
Yes, I need to care
I have to care for that man
For the woman on the street
For the child inside the 99 cent store petitioning for a bag of chips
Or a cheap plastic toy
For the regular drifters inside Dunkin Donuts
Sitting on stools like lost pigeons with no where else to go
Today I have no where else to go
So I sit waiting for Angelo to play his rendition of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"
So I can begin with words
Nervous tightly coiled my usual look
Petrified some have noted
The hole at the tip of my Rockports; which was noticeable
As I step upon the wooden box
Some wonder a song
A recitation of a Shakespearian piece
Angelo played softly so I could be heard over the makeshift mini microphone
I spoke
Verse after verse
Prose written on tattered typing paper
It was the love this unfair affair that left me homeless
With no where else to go

By Lepadah
copyright 2009